Two weeks down, many to go! :)

Hello Friends,

My week in detail is as follows:

-On Tuesday, May 31 I spent the day again riding along with my mentor and sales rep, Jeff. We visited Co-Alliance in Kempton and they will not be having any Instinct plots (my assigned summer project) because they strictly use Anhydrous. We then went to Co-Alliance in Michigantown and received a tour of the facilities. A group of five Dow Formulation Team members wanted to see the mixing process to gain a better understanding of how the products they make actually work. Joe, the Manager at this location told us how much he liked Sure Start as he said “it works too good!” We then went to visit a farmer whose corn was at V-2/V-3and wanted to know if he could still apply Sure Start (A herbicide).
-Wednesday, June 1 I spent with my sales rep, Jamie where we visited a few locations in her territory. After one particular visit, the Manager then called her to order an additional 500 gallons of Sure Start after seeing us that morning. We also dropped off some Sale Sheets for the new Instinct Sidedress label.-On Thursday, June 2 I spent the day on the road by myself dropping off sale sheets at various locations in Jamie’s territory. While at each of these locations, if I was able to speak to the Manager, I asked and gained information about Instinct plots and if they were going to have any or not. I went to Harvest Land in Lapel, CPS in Fairmount and Warren, Helena in Markle, Harvest Land in Decatur and Williams, Helena in Berne, Harvest Land in Bryant and Winchester, and lastly Harvest Land in Lynn.
-On Friday, June 3rd I also spent the day doing visits and dropping of Sale Sheets and I also took some Instinct notepads with me. This day I visited CPS in Homer, New Salem, Straughn, Rushville, and Williamsburg. I also went to Harvest Land in Hagerstown, Mt. Summit, Dunreith, and Wilkinson. I tried to acquire information about potential plots for these locations as well but since the weather was nice, the majority of the time I was only able to speak with the Secretarys. Also, because planting has taken place so late, most guys are either going to apply Instinct to the whole field, or not at all. The locations on Thursday and Friday told me they had just began planting within the past day or two, so they were extra far behind.

Thursday and Friday were my first two days to actually travel alone. From Tuesday evening until Friday, I put over 900 miles on my vehicle! These two days were a little challenging just that everyone was super busy trying to plant corn, therefore did not really have a lot of time to provide me. I understand people are busy, however if it were me, I might just try to be a tiny bit nicer! :)

One major difference in the social style of Texas and Indiana is that people here are not near as friendly as we are in the Lone Star State. For whatever reason this may be, it is definitely something I have to take into consideration as I make my various visits and stops with customers. In addition, spending a lot of time on the road alone and meeting with people who act like they do not have time for you, will make for a long few days. I can honestly say that I miss getting to interact with people as I have in previous jobs, but I just have to remember that this time of year for farmers, is extremely crucial with as far behind as they are.

Just a point of reference, ALL Corn had to be in the ground by June 5th, and the guys I visited Thursday and Friday told me they had just begun planting. Talk about stress!! They had to work all night long to complete the planting before June 5th.

I am beginning to make some friends here, which is so helpful. This experience has reminded me how many simple things I take fore granted. I never thought being here, knowing nobody would be as much of a challenge as it really is. I forgot how nice it is to attend church and recognize familiar faces. Nope, not here. I can go anywhere in the whole city and not know a single person. I forget how nice it is to just be able to call a friend and go hang out. This summer is definitely going to teach me who I really am and allow me to grow up more than I could have ever imagined. With that said, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel extremely blessed to be here and I love my job more and more every day. It is like no other feeling to be able to learn all of the technical information and actually be able to apply it and help farmers with their crops that provide their families total income. I am truly trying to learn as much as I can each and every day so that I will be able to make a difference in American Agriculture as I had originally hoped.

Blessings,
Macy